This invention relates generally to railroad locomotives and more particularly to the cab arrangement of a locomotive used to propel a train of freight cars.
It is well known that railroads are an economical and energy-saving form of transportation for hauling bulk freight from points of origin to geographically separated distribution centers. A typical freight train comprises a string of interconnected freight cars which are propelled along a surface track by one or more than one locomotive. The train crew includes an engineer, a conductor, at least one brakeman, and sometimes an assistant for the engineer. The engineer and his assistant operate the train from a cab in the head end locomotive. The conductor and brakemen are responsible for handling the freight cars, and ordinarily they ride in a caboose which is coupled to the rear end of the train. The conductor is in charge of the train and communicates with the engineer by radio or by hand, flag, or lantern signals.
Often the respective cars in a given train have a plurality of different origins or destinations, and consequently the composition of the train is changed from time to time as cars are removed from or added to it. In branchline or short train applications, there is relatively frequent switching of individual cars or of small groups of cars. Each time a freight car is cut out of or onto the train, the trailing caboose has to be first set off and subsequently picked up.
A general objective of the present invention is to eliminate the caboose from freight trains, thereby facilitating removal and addition of the freight cars.
Another objective of the invention is to improve communications among the whole train crew in general and between engineer and conductor in particular.